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http://www.donssupporterstogether.com/dst-on-rangers-newco-sporting-integrity-and-the-financial-reality/ DST on Rangers Newco: Sporting Integrity and the Financial Reality May 7, 2012 DST views with increasing concern the possibility that SPL clubs will vote to allow direct entry of a newco to the SPL with minimal penalties. The overwhelming opinion of supporters in Scotland is that a newco should enter senior football by applying for admission to the SFL 3rd division and working their way up again in a sustainable and honest way. Rangers like all other member clubs must be seen to comply with the rules and honour their debts, otherwise why should fans ever bother to turn up again, knowing for sure that the league is permanently rigged in their favour. The mantra being repeated by most pundits and the officials of the SPL is that it is in the member clubs’ financial interest that a Rangers newco is immediately admitted to the SPL. The purported grounds are that Rangers along with Celtic bring about £700,000 a year to the other clubs by their fans attendance at matches and the TV deal. The message now being put about is that integrity and fair play is trumped by the financial imperative to survive since Scottish football will supposedly cease to be viable if Rangers are not in the top league. How can this stance be squared with Rangers and Celtic’s insistence in recent years that their departure to England/an Atlantic League would not be detrimental to Scottish football? These assertions must be strongly challenged by the SPL club chairmen. Firstly, who are making the assertions? Many of the proponents of the “status quo” being essential have a vested interest. Media pundits and the press pack know that there will be far less appetite for their blanket coverage of the Old Firm if there is a transfer embargo and Rangers are facing East Stirlingingshire twice a season rather than Celtic. Their jobs hang in the balance. Clearly Rangers officials and supporters want their club at the top table winning trophies every season with guaranteed European football. They also have a vested interest for either financial or emotional reasons. Now for the financial reality. In the case of our own club, in a season when AFC is in the top six, Rangers will normally add about 8000 over 2 games to the overall attendances for the season. Including programmes, food and other ancillary sales, the annual revenue is therefore about £200,000. Ranger’s fans represent about 4% of Aberdeen’s gate revenue in an average season, and if we have a good run in Europe, such as 4 seasons ago their effect is reduced to 2% of gate revenue. Should Dundee (probably the best supported club in the SFL 1st division) be promoted into Rangers place, they have historically brought at least 2000 fans to Aberdeen matches, so the Rangers effect is reduced to £150000. If only 300 AFC fans fail to renew their season tickets and walk away from the club next season as a result of a misguided vote to allow a Rangers newco direct entry to the SPL, the effect of any Rangers support attending Pittodrie will be cancelled out. This is an entirely plausible scenario, which may well be repeated across all the SPL clubs given the strength of feeling being demonstrated across Scotland on this issue. SPL club chairmen will only finally count the cost of their decision when season ticket sales fail to materialise, by which time it will be too late to persuade the fans that the SPL is not permanently rigged in favour of the “too big to fail” clubs. The SPL chairmen should indeed “be careful what they wish for” if they vote for finance over integrity. The TV deal melt-down scenario must also be challenged. If imaginative thought is applied, an alternative TV deal could be put together which would replace the current tired format. Rugby Super League in England has a £90m 5 year deal with Sky despite having lower attendances than the SPL. That is a better deal than the SPL had, so why can a minority sport with lower support do it and the SPL can’t? Probably because we are competing with the EPL and UEFA games, and therefore get less money and the lunch-time, Friday and Monday evening kick-offs to fill in the TV schedule gaps. If we go for summer football, we would be the only show in town for several weeks of the year and our product would be much more valuable. We could increase the league size as the customers want, have bigger play offs to keep the end of the season alive, and if OF games are actually essential to the deal, re-introduce the old League Cup qualifying groups at the start of the season with Rangers and Celtic in the same 4 team group to start the season with 2 OF games before the league starts. Overall, a revised programme for the season could easily generate the same cash as before from a TV deal, whether Rangers are in the SPL or not. Finally let us address the potential absence of £500,000 a year income from TV. This could be replaced by increasing the average home gate by attracting only 1000 extra fans to every home game. The latent support for a successful Aberdeen FC is there to be had. 18,000 made the long trip to Glasgow for a 1215 kick-off only last month. If the AFC product on the pitch was more attractive and marketed as enthusiastically as a certain well known North-East house building company’s product, a target of 1000 extra season ticket fans to replace the TV income could easily be reached. In summary, AFC like all the other SPL clubs does not need Rangers in the SPL to survive and thrive, and must vote for integrity in our national game.

Forget the theory that Rangers don't get it, SPL clubs don't get it. This whole bravado about "we need Rangers" followed by a line about what it would mean to x club is truly unbelievable. Every club runs out a line that although sounds bad is nowhere near relegation bad. If every club in the SPL cannot afford the hit of relegation what are we saying here? We will keep Rangers in the SPL because we cannot afford not to, and what exactly do you plan on doing in the event of relegation? I think a little edit should be getting made in these letters some fans are sending their chairmen. A little paragraph asking if their particular club has a no relegation policy? Trust me, if your club cannot afford a hit from a 2 visits from Rangers and a reduced TV deal, you most certainly wouldn't handle a stint in division 1. I think Killie fans should especially ask the question as 2 years ago you were 1 game away from relegation.

Bit late to the party on this one but have been reading keenly. It seems like too many people are focusing on the money side of things, how much Rangers owe X etc. Surely if money was the issue noone would really have much of an issue of Rangers staying in the SPL because most teams (if not all) have been in dire straits financially at one point or another. The problem is if Rangers are found guilty of using illegal contracts, that then means any time Rangers have beaten your team in that time span they were cheating and it should be null and void. Every penny you spent watching your team play Rangers, they cheated your team out of a fair game and as such cheated you out of your money. If they are guilty of this then surely the only the only recourse is to punt them out of the league system for good. When Juventus were found guilty of ref fixing and cheating for one Serie A season they were relegated, 9 point deduction and recieved a £31,000,000 (equivalent) fine. What would Rangers get if it turns out the illegal contracts were used over a period of 10 or even 15 years? A slap on the wrist and a newco in the Scottish top division would be an insult to anybody who has watched any competitive SPL game or Cup game involving Rangers over that time span. TL;DR - Rangers are c**nts.

Wow, a treble and 3 league titles in a row! Fa's like us! And only 17 years ago, too. I think I'll live in the 90s now rather than the 80s.

Strange that as the administrators were more than willing to use Rangers' vote when it came to changing the 11/1 voting setup.

One of the things that pisses me off most about this whole sorry episode is the analogy of Oldco Rangers as a "sick patient", with the attendant implications that it's the passive and unfortunate victim of circumstances, deserving of special treatment to nurse it back to health. It's not a "sick patient". It's a large, steaming turd. Oldco Rangers have coiled large, steaming turds on the carpets of the SFA, the SPL, HMRC, and on the head of every club chairman who fights to manage his resources and live within his means. Not least, they have coiled a large, steaming turd on the carpet of the Scottish Government, and in particular the carpet of the First Minister. Is a prospective independent Scotland going to be a beacon of integrity and fairness, or is it going to be the Banana Republic of North Britain? What line is he going to take? "They are Rangers, they can shit where they want"? Or is he going to take the longer view and, for the sake of everyone else in Scotland, go for the house-training option? And exactly what message do the club chairmen want to give to Rangers? Make it worth our while and you can stay in our SPL house and shit on the rug anytime you feel like it? Or are they going to have the guts to tell Rangers to go and play outside in the SFL for a while? "And when you come back inside play nice, play fair, and most importantly, don't shit on the carpet!"

I have to agree with Gaz Ffc. There is 30 teams who don't have a tv deal or the old firm visiting them twice a season and there are still playing competitive football. It is ridiculous that Rangers (and potentially Celtic) get to spend money they don't have for years and become a massive force in the game, and then not get punished for cheating! If that's the case, I want Falkirk to spend millions in the next few seasons, get all the glory hunters on board and then become successful, because that seems like a fair deal. We might get a ten point reduction if we are unlucky! But in truth, i find it hard seeing SPL chairman jump on the 'we need rangers' bandwagon, admitting defeat and justifying their presence in the league. If 30 other teams can do without them, so can the SPL. I would rather see a 'poor' competitive league rather than a Bunch of cheats run the game.

A little thought for the good people out there who go on about sky ruling the decision on whether or not we lose Rangers. In 13 days time the Scottish cup final takes place at 3.00. When the FA cup final took place yesterday their was no games up against it and it had a stage all to itself. The Scottish cup final goes up against the Champioship playoff final and yet their is no reason SKY couldn't have put that game at 12.30 or 5.00. Sky maybe throw a lot iof money at Scottish football but they don't even make a secret of the fact they couldn't give a toss about it. They regularly put decent English games up against Scottish football on a Saturday or Sunday but to do it to the Scottish cup final is too far for me. We should not only tell Rangers to get to f**k but Sky too.

Anybody else get the feeling that the other 11 clubs made up their mind a long time ago that Rangers won't be relegated and are now just delaying until they can convince us it's the right thing to do? Let's be honest, this isn't 11 chairmen sitting in a big office in Hampden. It is 11 shithouses discussing the fallout from us when they tell us Rangers are too big to lose. What us stupid diddy team supporters need to learn is we have a place and don't rock the boat. Well guess what SPL, the diddies formed a union thanks to P&B and we aren't so silent now. We are ready to strike if integrity isn't seen to be upheld. If Scottish football is all about 2 teams playing each other 4 times and the world watching then please tell us now and cut the crap, we are all fucking bored of your pish.

In which case you will require a daily update as to which rules apply on that particular day, to which clubs, what majority is required regarding the subject topic, who is entitled to vote and will the rules be changing before tomorrow. Good luck.

That's been Doncuntsters modus operandi since he started. Remember his Comical Ali like denials that there was no fan opposition to a 10 team league and that it was "the only show in town"? Basically every time Doncuntster has come up against a difficult question he's given a troll line of "You don't get it because you are too stupid to get it, just leave it with us, we know what we are doing. Now sit down and enjoy your happy meal".

Is this a case of constantly adjourning the meetings until someone else (eg HMRC) solves the problem for them?

Miller won't make a bid for rangers until he knows what sanctions they would face and the SPL won't decide on Rangers until they see what millers bid entails.

Rangers have no directors at present, we had no one to send The solution is quite simple really, in the event of liquidation that team has to reapply to join the 3rd division. No need for all these meetings at all. Simples.

Not to mention quotes that were seemingly not attributable to Paul at all. Mebbes naw... I'm no fan of the GOP but Ron Paul is far from racist. When trying to smear, one should always check the source of the evidence. Bill Miller could be a multiple goat rapist for all I care, but to declare him racist by proxy using shite as evidence show that you're every bit as deluded as those you defame. Same arse, different cheeks.

For the SPL chairmen..................

We should have made UTN post our alternative what happened on the day.... It went something like "We all cycled the 40 mile route in just over an hour to be greeted very warmly by hoards of semi clad female Swedish Cheerleaders"............ This was more like the scene to be fair..

Listening to the interviews, Mccugrn wants to stay. GET HIM SIGNED MCGLYNN

Spot on, the decision has already been made, that's for sure. Every club chairman who votes newco into the SPL will have the blood of Scottish Football on their hands, short term fix, long term nightmare. The SPL should be disbanded, it is a corrupt organization.

Would and would. Might even get telt ti beat it!

Anyone heard this yet? Its the debut single from a new " supergroup" featuring- Matt Tuck of BFMV on guitar and backing vocals, Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats on lead vocals, Mike Kingswood of Glamour of the Kill on guitar, Joe Copcutt formerly of Rise to Remain playing bass and Jason Bowld of Pitchshifter on drums. I love this track and the band sound promising as hell. Album due out soon.

I love Maiden, over 30 years in the business and still great,first time I saw them was in 83 on the Piece of Mind tour at the Embra Playhouse,outstanding then and brilliant when I took my 12 year old son to see them last year in Belfast,one of the most important bands in British music history without a doubt and not given the respect in the media and music industry that they deserve,ask yourself this in 20 years time will Coldplay sell out 250,000 tickets in Rio? Doubt it Up the Irons!!!!!

I don't believe you. Pics please. Sister or mother, I'm not fussy. But if you're taking requests, mother bathing sister.

So to round up... SPL Without Rangers travelling support & Reduced TV revenue = Closure of many clubs, pestilence, suffering and anguish. 1st Div (for relegated sides from SPL) without any TV money nor the travelling supports of Rangers AND Celtic = Not one recorded bankruptcy.

I have been following Alex Thomson. It's amazing what an INVESTIGATIVE journalist can put forward & put's the WoS "Succulent Lamb" hacks to shame. However, having read this, & agreed with everything he had to say. He has missed out another elephant in the room, in the case of the double contracts, which is also in contravention of SFA rules. They have stiffed umpteen clubs, but worst of all, they've stiffed their own fans (who are too blind to see it). Being in a situation where relegation to the bottom division is the only reasonable outcome. This inexplicable contravention of the rules, for what you can only assume is the whole of SDM's tenure at Ibrox, should further result in expulsion from the Scottish Football setup SINE DIE.

Nailed on adjournment today. "Right boys, we could sort out this Rangers thing the now. But I hear on the grape vine that spoons have a Curry night on the day. Which is it going to be?"

Miller, 65, is registered as a member of the Republican party. That will cause a few heart attacks within the knuckledragger brigade...lol

Their contract doesn't demand 4 OF games, that's become a tabloidesque oversimplication: it requires both to be in the division (to create potential for 4 OF derbies + 34 OF away games) else they can renegotiate or, ultimately, walk. Only possible grey area is whether they could (and would want to) pay X% less if 4th OF derby didn't materialise, but it's not going to result in widespread legal wrangles, nor reduce it heavily even if so. But it's not been explicitly confirmed anywhere the price is in anyway reliant on Derby 4.

Today will be everyone - it's league proposals rather than the specific transfer of the Rangers share. When the latter happens it will be the (six person) board, unless they succeed in chucking it off to the whole SPL to avoid responsibility.

Live coverage from the SPL meeting today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm7D5VRfaTI

Football fans have always looked for an excuse to walk away and the rangers issue is just the latest excuse. We heard it when the SPL was set up and we'll hear it when the SPL folds, but TBH I don't think sporting integrity extends beyond how it affects our individual clubs. If the breaks go our way we celebrate, if they go against us we moan like f**k and talk of boycotts. It's the only thing that remains constant in the game.

Actually they played Connaught at the weekend at Firhill. The move to Scotstoun Stadium isn't until next season as far as I remember. As Alex Thomson has already pointed out, that will be the whole thing screwed when a Rangers full of kids and hasbeens fail to make the top 6 at the split. Cue Sky claiming the SPL have broken the terms of the contract and they don't need to pay out what was agreed. Cue lengthy and expensive court case from SPL to try and get the money, meanwhile the clubs find themselves worse off than had they agreed to tell Rangers to piss off and take their medicine in the first place. Only in Scotland - business acumen of donkeys! The Spirit of Darien is alive and well.

I appreciate the sentiment. It's just a pity he doesn't know the rules or the structure of the game. The SPL had nothing to do with Livi or Gretna.

exactly what he'll do when he see's Rangers Books !

That's probably accurate. I'd be happy with that and a more competitive league, I think, though I realise that sounds patronising. The SPL needs to look at other leagues which have faced similar problems. For example, let's look at Switzerland. This season they had the Sion nonsense, then Neuchatel Xamax were expelled from the league in mid-season after being bought by a 'not fit and proper person' who was engaging in financial mismanagement and deception (hmm, wonder who that reminds us of?). They only played 18 games, and the season continued with just 9 clubs. Xamax were relegated to the regional leagues at their equivalent of the third division. Then a couple of weeks ago Servette, Young Boys and Zurich were all refused licences on financial grounds. This will naturally cause problems in the Swiss league - the equivalent would be something like Hearts being kicked out of the SPL mid-season and Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts being refused licences*. Basel also refused to celebrate winning the title, as Luzern were contesting the result of a match in court. The authorities weren't afraid of issuing the punishments, yet our league authorities are terrified. This 'impossible to please everyone' line is the worst - it's possible to please everyone except the club with everything to lose who caused the situation in the first place. The choice isn't difficult. *I'd argue that would do more short-term damage than just Rangers being kicked out.

[1] and [2] aren't reasons for not voicing your opinion if the alternative is doing nothing / complaining after the event. However, point [3] that you make is interesting, in that it's exactly the difficult position most SPL chairmen now find themselves in before this vote. The point I'm trying to make is that the story being spun by the media is that these fans who don't want to see a newco admitted to the SPL don't realise or don't fully appreciate the knock on effect it might have, and that it's right and proper that a newco slots right back in. Of course, this isn't true - many who don't want to see a newco admitted are fully aware of the knock-on effect it may have on the rest of the SPL, but value sporting integrity more highly. This message needs to heard loud and clear before any vote is taken. Rangers' actions to get to this point have been disgraceful, but any chairman who votes to readmit a newco for their own club's financial benefit is complicit in the collapse of sporting integrity in our game. Personally, I'd like to see newco Rangers do the honourable thing and apply directly to the SFL without attempting to transfer the SPL share; but I know I'm living in fantasyland with that one.

Maybe but bums on seats advantage is maybe slightly less of a fairness issue that downright cheating, unless you want to give your SPL status to Stirling Albion? No he won't

I'm not sure where that guy got his figures from. Celtic's finances are ok. Not spectacularly profitable or anything, and we've had a few years of falling turnover thanks to being crap in Europe, but our debt is something miniscule like 600k, and we're run in a sustainable way, trying to develop players and sell them on for a profit. Most years we're profitable. We would be able to cut our cloth to suit any loss of money from not having Rangers around relatively easily (and our board would love any excuse to cut back on squad investment even further). A few other clubs would probably thrive in that event - well run clubs like St Mirren don't really need us or Rangers and would probably get bigger gates. It's the guys like Dundee Utd, Killie and Hearts we have to worry about. If some clubs can't cope financially without both us and Rangers being around then so be it, they need to suffer too - it's a disaster if the worst run clubs in the country hold the rest of us to ransom in that way. I have little faith in our board to do the right thing here though.

This type of discussion is part of the problem. Why is it important that the co-efficient is improved ? Is it so that scottish teams can fare better in European competition ? Or, is it perhaps so that scottish clubs can earn more money ? If, like me, you take the latter view, you will realise that the game is turning more and more towards business as football becomes less and less relevant. We need to worry less about co-efficients and concentrate on improving player development and scottish football as a sporting entertainment. There are no teams in this country who have realistic aspirations to win European tournaments, it's all about chasing the cash. In the long term with reconstruction and an equitable distribution of resources perhaps things can change but at the moment it is in everyone's interests to forget about scrambling for the crumbs from the Old Firm table.

I ventured out to Club Tropicana last night. The drinks aren't free, but thanks to thick barstaff, they are three for the price of one! It's actually not as bad as you'd think, although there are some horrific puddles of mess wandering around the place. I was pretty pleased with the music on offer, much better than your usual Saturday night fare. One of the barmaids had "Daddy's Little Girl" tattooed on her forearm. Definitely no issues there... I was also snapped by a photographer, so I'm pretty worried.

The playing surface at Ibrox does look amazing just now though. They got ninety nine problems but the pitch ain't one.......

Whenever my frustration boils over, I read Alex Thomson's blog and it restores my faith in the world of journalism. Maybe all is not yet lost.

He wonders why people weren't as vitriolic when Shellick were on the ropes in '94? The Record sent a bloody hearse and a wreath.... Here's a clue, Jim... THEY WEREN'T CHEATING.

Might as well get anusol on board too. Ky jelly and ass cream

He should not be asked to accept f**k all, he should be TOLD! If he wants them the terms of sale should be set by us.

Somewhere along the line we got lost. It's not about football. It's not about competition. It's not about entertainment. It's not even about getting fans to games; increasing attendances and promoting the game. It's about money. Which I could understand if the clubs were running profits and making owners rich. But it's not even that. It's about getting as much money as you can as quickly as possible so you can continue to vastly overpay a bunch of pretty shite footballers (whilst inflating their egos to the point that many of them are utter failures as human beings). The SPL deserves to die. They have a chance to rip it up and start something fresh, new and with some financial sense but they have neither the brains our courage to even try.

I lived in London for quite a while and agree that's a pretty common response to announcing you're an Old Firm supporter. I think you're glossing over the subtext to "is that the Catholic team or the Protestant team?". Lots of English people find the whole thing rather distasteful, archaic and rather beyond the likes of Southampton v. Portsmouth. This applies equally to both of course. I do think events in Manchester crystallized some per existing toxic stereotypes of Rangers -- all Chelsea and Millwall supporters infiltrating your spotless ranks, of course but it does tend to come up rather frequently when Rangers are mentioned. I also believe many people across the UK view Rangers as having defrauded the inland revenue in a time of acute austerity, and that leads them to view Rangers negatively. I think there is much less sympathy for Rangers that Portsmouth or Darlington, and that "toxic" isn't too strong a term. Your desire to peg me as a "pathetic loner" based on one post strikes me as a bit odd.

No. I shall never have any other feeling than hatred for a club built on bigotry, continues to encourage it for profit, has progressed to cheating everyone they've come in contact with and would walk away tomorrow from the clubs about to save them given the chance. The fact that their fans and club officials are acting like vindictive b*****ds only proves what a vile organisation it is.

They must have missed the 11th commandment: Thou shall act like a c**t.

It's a fuckin tip,the same as Somerset,you deluded c*nt!